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Does Science Benefit From the Search for Sasquatch?

By Krissy Eliot

Last week, we published a two-part profile on UC Berkeley grad and anthropologist Grover Krantz, known to many as the original “Bigfoot scientist.” (You can find the first part of the profile here and the second half here.) Today, we examine the question of whether mythological creatures like Bigfoot are worthy of scientific analysis. The answers we discovered might surprise you.

It’s difficult to get respect when you work in a field that is referred to as pseudoscience.

Cryptozoology, the study of animals as yet undiscovered, relies heavily on folklore, citizen accounts, and amateur data collection to “prove” that legendary creatures like Bigfoot and Yeti actually exist. In the absence of empirical evidence—and of the skepticism intrinsic to scientific inquiry—such methods can be troubling if not irritating to mainstream scientists.

However, there appears to be some agreement among academics that creatures of folklore deserve scientific investigation. Why? Because cryptid studies have long led to discoveries.

“Through the history of time, there have been things that were once perceived outside of nature that were then brought into it and understood to be a part of nature,” said Cal grad and folklore professor Lynne McNeill, in an interview with Radio West. “I think that a lot of this interest in the science, or pseudoscience, of [creatures like] Bigfoot—is in crossing that bridge, bringing something unknown into the known.”

Take, for example, the giant squid.

Since Greek and Roman times (and probably before) people have been telling tales of a terrifying, tentacled sea monster of titanic size that could swamp small ships and sailboats, scaring sailors while providing fiction writers with a plethora of material. The giant squid was considered nothing but a fiction by the scientific community for centuries until 1857, when Danish zoologist Japetus Steenstrup managed to find a squid beak so enormous that it could only belong to a cephalopod of jumbo proportions. “From all evidences,” Steenstrup concluded, “the stranded animal must thus belong not only to the large but to the really gigantic cephalopods, whose existence has on the whole been doubted.”

Following this, bits and pieces of the giant squid were found by others—a batch of tentacles here, a head there, but no complete body. It wasn’t until the 1960s that marine biologist Frederick Aldrich would harness the power of folklore to transform myth into reality, dragging to science’s doorstep the first fully intact body of the KRAKEN.

Using the folktales from Memorial University of Newfoundland’s archives, Aldrich collected sailors’ descriptions of where and when they saw the creature, then predicted when the next sightings would occur. He put up WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE posters featuring old black-and-white drawings of a giant squid flailing its monstrous tentacles, with the University of Newfoundland’s name at the top. “It’s a miracle he didn’t get fired,” McNeill said. Two weeks later, a sailor caught a giant squid, called Aldrich up and said, “Oh, hey. Here it is!”

“The people saying, ‘Here it is!’ are of course poor fisherman living on the coast of Newfoundland, who all along are the ones who were finding these pieces and body parts, saying the giant squid was real, and being totally discredited because they weren’t university professors,” McNeill said. “Of course, this is the sad story of people not being taken seriously until a university professor takes them seriously. But, better that than never, right?”

And the giant squid is not the only case.

The gorilla was thought to be fake until the 19th century, when naturalist and physician Thomas Savage happened upon gorilla bones in Liberia, finally proving that the species was real. It then took another 10 years for explorer Paul du Chaillu to actually see a gorilla, hunt it down, and send back the specimen. The platypus, okapi, Komodo dragon, manatee, plesiosaur, pelican, and the King of Saxony bird of paradise, among others, were only “officially declared real” by scientists after the 1700s, which means for the 18 centuries before that, they were considered to be mythical or hoaxes.

From these cases we can surmise that mysterious animals don’t reveal themselves only to scientists; they can in fact be pretty apathetic about what audience bears witness to their debut. And it is certainly consistent with scientific inquiry to believe that just because a creature is not known now doesn’t mean it never will be. Cryptozoologists often use this reasoning to justify paying heed to civilian accounts of Bigfoot sightings—an idea that even the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees, Jane Goodall, would seem to get behind.

“Does Sasquatch exist? There are countless people—especially indigenous people—in different parts of America who claim to have seen such a creature,” writes Goodall in her endorsement of Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, a book by Idaho State University professor and anthropologist Jeffrey Meldrum. “And in many parts of the world I meet those who, in a matter-of-fact way, tell me of their encounters with large, bipedal, tail-less hominids. I think I have read every article and every book about these creatures, and while most scientists are not satisfied with existing evidence, I have an open mind.”

If the search for Sasquatch doesn’t result in finding a literal Bigfoot, studying cryptids has been shown to lead to discoveries of previously unidentified species. And recently, too.

In 2013, a documentary film company enlisted the help of Charlotte Lindqvist, a geneticist at the University at Buffalo in New York, to help determine whether the bone and fur samples they collected in the Himalayas were that of Bigfoot or Yeti. Though Lindqvist found that the samples were not from cryptids but were actually from multiple known species of bears, the samples allowed for scientific breakthrough of another kind: Lindqvist and her colleagues were able to, for the first time in history, fully sequence the mitochondrial genomes of a Himalayan brown bear and black bear. Not only that, but they were also able to deduce that over 650,000 years ago, glaciers forced a single population of bears apart, creating two isolated populations that, over time, became two distinct subspecies—the Himalayan brown bears and Tibetan brown bears that exist today.

In the same year, scientists from Oxford University and zoological museums in France and Germany put out a call asking people to send them evidence of “anomalous primates” like Sasquatch. When it was all said and done, they had 57 hair and fur samples, and almost all of them were from previously discovered mammals like black bears, dogs, cows, porcupines, and horses. However, two different samples from Bhutan and India matched a 40,000-year-old fossil of a polar bear found in Norway, though neither sample matched genetic markers in modern polar bears. Meaning that the search for cryptids led scientists to discover a species of bear that was previously unknown to science—a species that may have been in existence even before polar and brown bears diverged into different species.

“There’s a lot of pigheadedness about scientists,” said Krantz in an article about Bigfoot. “If science has missed an animal this big, science would look a little funny. So better not look for it.”

Norman MacLeod, curator of paleontology at London’s Natural History Museum, said the results of this research prove that scientists and cryptozoologists need to cooperate.

“Cryptozoologists must now either accept the findings … or show where they are in error,” MacLeod writes in his review of the Oxford University study. “Mainstream zoologists must also now recognize that, in the case of hair samples, the claims of the cryptozoological community are now amenable to scientific testing and potential verification. In this area, these two communities can and should speak the same language, the language of hard scientific data and hypothesis testing. Will this ultimately lead to the recognition of new large mammalian species in out-of-the way corners of the world? No one—certainly no scientist—can say for sure. What we do know is that scientific discoveries just as strange and unexpected as those advocated by cryptozoologists in these cases have happened before.”

So if history shows that science can potentially benefit from examining cryptozoological findings, why is that so many scientists are still adamantly against the practice? Berkeley graduate Grover Krantz, the first scientist to publicly dedicate his life and career to the search for Bigfoot (and whom we profile here and here) thought the problem for many of his colleagues is their hurt pride—they can’t bear the idea of having to admit a colossal creature like Sasquatch was right under their noses all this time.

“There’s a lot of pigheadedness about scientists,” Krantz told the Virginia Chronicle in a 1982 article about Bigfoot. “If science has missed an animal this big, science would look a little funny. So better not look for it.”

Another reason scientists don’t go public with their belief, Krantz said, is fear of being ostracized—something he knew about quite well. While working as a professor at Washington State, he was constantly turned down for grants and promotions and was almost fired multiple times for investigating and speaking openly about Sasquatch.

Krantz estimated that 10-20 percent of scientists actually do believe in Sasquatch, according to a 1978 story in the Desert Sun, but they’re afraid to come out as believers and risk their careers.

“[Scientists] continue to be for the most part skeptical,” Krantz said in a 1990s TV segment. “But there’s a substantial number who do think [Sasquatch] is real, and some who do take the possibility quite seriously.”

Of course, stubbornness and fear aren’t the only reasons that scientists might turn up their noses at cryptozoology. The search for Bigfoot is rife with elaborate hoaxes that could make anyone’s eyes roll. Some cryptozoologists have fallen prey to these hoaxes, accepting photo or video footage as evidence that a creature exists—something scientists would never do.

“Cryptozoology wants so bad to be a real science; it really wants to be recognized. You know, [cryptozoologists] have their own journals, they give talks, they hold their own conferences. And a lot of it is science-ish … but they don’t hold themselves to the same standards as actual scientists,” science journalist Brian Switek said in an interview with Radio West. “They don’t act professional is the thing. It can be easy for that line to get blurred. What is actually science? How are these people actually testing this? Is this just someone who really wants this to be true and is just finding a way to express their belief in this mildly technical language?”

A famous example of this is the Patterson-Gimlin film, the supposed first known footage of a Bigfoot traipsing through the woods of Bluff Creek in the late 1960s. Scientists who watched the film immediately after its release deemed it totally bogus, and years later in a National Geographic interview, a man named Bob Heironimous publicly claimed that the film was all a hoax, and that filmmakers Bob Gimlin and Roger Patterson promised him a grand if he’d put on a suit and pretend to be Bigfoot. They never paid him, he said, and for years, he kept silent about it until he apparently couldn’t take the injustice anymore.

“Those who would seek monsters not as metaphors, but as flesh and blood organisms have gone largely overlooked by the history of science,” says Brian Regal. “Belief in Bigfoot has become a part of the rejection of knowledge”

“Millions of people have been fooled, all these years,” Heironimous said. “If they had paid me the $1,000 like they promised, I would have kept my mouth shut.”

Regardless, Bigfoot believers still look to the film as proof of Bigfoot’s existence. Even Krantz who, for reasons of his own, became convinced it was real—despite having originally dismissed it as “someone wearing a gorilla suit.”

Despite all this, it would seem inappropriate, if not illogical, for scientists to be vehemently against studying cryptids, not just because it’s yielded good results in the past, but also because forbidding the study of something goes against the entire principle of the scientific method, as the scientists of the 2013 Oxford University study note.

“Modern science has largely avoided this field and [cryptozoological] advocates frequently complain that they have been ‘rejected by science,’” the scientists write in their paper. “This conflicts with the basic tenet that science neither rejects nor accepts anything without examining the evidence.”

It’s also undeniable that without the data collection and research of determined amateurs, science would not likely have discovered many of the creatures we know today. Not recognizing the value of cryptozoologists, says Kean University professor Brian Regal, would be strikingly unjust.

“Those who would seek monsters not as metaphors, but as flesh and blood organisms have gone largely overlooked by the history of science,” Regal writes in the philosophical and scientific journal Endeavor. “Belief in Bigfoot has become a part of the rejection of knowledge all too many Americans engage in over the pronouncements of ‘experts.’”

No matter how much science pulls back, McNeill says, those hunting for cryptids like Bigfoot will leave no footprint uncast.

“It is, these days, taboo in many ways to say science might not have gotten it right. Science is our new religion, right? We could say, ‘God will it,’ and now we can say, ‘Science determined it,’” McNeill says. “And that’s the model we live in now. But people have not stopped wondering … and any time that our institutions don’t take on the question or provide us with answers, or provide us with answers that are satisfactory, people turn to more informal levels of cultural exchange to get their questions answered.”

The irony of all this, of course, is that the pursuit of truth is what cryptozoologists and scientists have in common, yet also appears to be what divides them. “The pursuit of truth leads people to both believe in legends,” McNeill says, “And to totally denounce them.”

If you enjoyed this piece, check back in tomorrow, when we investigate why and how people come to believe in legendary animals like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. The reasons for their beliefs, Berkeley experts say, might even be rational.

Krissy Eliot is senior associate editor at CALIFORNIA. You can find more examples of her work and her contact info at www.krissyeliot.com.

Comments

Good article… I’d call myself a hopeful skeptic on the Bigfoot question, but there are a couple of points of note.
There is more to the Patterson film than Bob Heironimous’s claim he was in the suit. Bill Munn’s, a hollywood special effect expert went examine the film to prove it fake and found that the body proportions (hip to shoulder, leg length and arm length with joints) do NOT fit human proportions. He also lined up Bob when he did his special claiming he was in the suit and Bob didn’t match the body proportions. Bob passed a lie detector saying it was him… Both Patterson and Bob Gimlin also passed lie detector tests saying it was genuine… So to me the Patterson film is still a question, not something so easily dismissed.
There is lots of other anecdotal, if not definitive evidence to review. The Skookum cast, Jimmy Chilcuts review of dermal ridges in foot print casts, Dr Meldrums study of foot print casts showing a bell curve of variety matching a living species, sightings that follow migration and food supply patterns that align with known existing animals.
As I said, I don’t know that sasquatch is real. I’ve been a hopeful skeptic since I was a kid in the 70’s watching the old TV specials on it and reading about the Ape canyon incident in a book my father had. Any investigation into this issue is always interesting to me.

Let’s flip this around, and ask the scientist to prove that there isn’t any of these creatures out there. There are several hundred footprint casts in Dr. Meldrums collection and others like Cliff Barackman. Several of those casts display dermal ridges and some traits that don’t match human or other known characteristics. Why doesn’t a group of different Universities put together a team to determine if they are indeed all hoaxes. They could also endeavour to search for fresh prints with the aid of groups such as the Rocky Mountain Sasquatch Organization and or several other well known groups who go out and research trackways and recent sightings. No I am not talking about a once off endeavour, I am saying if they want to put an end to these claims then they will have to put forth a two or three year endeavour of field research along with evaluating all known DNA and footprint evidence. If taxpayers can foot the bill for studies of how different species react to cocaine during mating season or such nonsense. The scientific community has denied the possibility of such creatures for far to long. It is time for them to put up their proof that it is indeed all a fraud. I personally am open minded enough to see that far to much evidence exists to just dismiss it out of hand. larrymiltonreed@gmail.com

The Patterson - Gimlin film was shot October 20, 1967, not “in the 1970’s”. Bob Heironimus told his story to Greg Long who included it in his book The Making of Bigfoot. It’s been debunked many times, most notably by John Green and Roger Knights.
The scientists who saw the film in BC were cool and non-committal but did not denounce it as “totally bogus”. Scientists in New York raised some objections and Life Magazine dropped their plans to do a story on it. National Wildlife Magazine published one in the April-May, 1968, issue.
For the most thorough study of the PGF to date see Bill Munns’ book When Roger Met Patty or his website or his presentations available on YouTube.
Good article overall but it would have been better without the errors.

I find the stories of Bigfoot, Reptilians, and other legends of old interesting. I was once a UFO researcher many years ago and came to the conclusion that whatever “aliens” are, they are real. I also concluded they have more in common with demons or demonic type entities than with actual physical beings that would come from another planet. That is my own humble opinion. As for Bigfoot, I think it is a real, but rare entity. native American legends tell of these creatures along with several other bipedal creatures as well depending on the location. I do not know if one will ever be captured alive or even killed. I have read stories that are hard to believe of hunters shooting one at very close range and the bullets made for large dangerous game not taking it down. This leads me to believe that either the hunter missed, the bigfoot is one tough creature, or the Bigfoot is a being that can appear and disappear into the spiritual world or some other dimension other than ours. if you want to do research into paranormal, Sedona, Arizona is the place to start. Mt. Shasta in California has some interesting history as well.

no! Science is NOT our new religion - only academics & folks who profit financially from carefully selected science care about any science. Our national religion, from on high, is hate spewing bigoted politics. Too much of our population will never be able to even comprehend discussions of science or objective data. Sadly, propaganda and demagoguery are again [still?] in charge.., just like in the Third Reich, and in many other periods of human history.

If the Patterson/Gimlin video was a hoax, then where is the suit? Your telling me after all this time, with the amount of interest involved, the hoaxer could make millions on the actual Ape costume involved. After all this time, still no suit. I’m sure we could start a Go Fund Me page and raise a significant amount of money….but still no suit. How does it remain unfound after all this time? Gimlin said that if it was a hoax he wasn’t in on it…because he said if the creature would have turned and charged them, he would have shot it. And still no suit. We are waiting…

Dr. Krantz considered the Bossburg casts as real and Dr. Meldrum considers the prints he viewed at the Paul Freeman site as genuine. There’s evidence that both cases may be hoaxes. The PG film I’m still on the fence as to whether that is a hoax or not. Rene Dahinden spent most of his life trying to verify the creatures existence and towards the end of his life he had some doubt.
Too many hoaxers and people out there trying to cash in on the “Bigfoot” craze. No real hard evidence to prove its existence. You know that expression…”does a bear poop in the woods?” well does a Bigfoot?

PG film is real 100% I’m an hunter and love being up in the mountains here in Oregon. I’ve seen deer, bear, elk, coyotes, bobcat, cougar and Bigfoot multiple times in a couple locations in the forests NE of
Silverton Oregon. They look and walk the same as PG film. I’ve talked with Jane Goodall, Dr. Henner Faugrenbach ?, Todd Neiss, and Ron Morehead. They are strong, fast primates that are worth looking for.
They are without doubt the most awesome animal I have ever seen.

Tim, I am a former BBC and Nat Geo wildlife cameraman and spent time with Jane Goodall.
Interested to do a film and would like to interview you, audio or video and can disguise your identity should you so wish.

I beliwve this is a bad science gone bad. If. Looking closely is a mix of ape n mansomeone tamper into a man dna. N ape
Broad shoulders like an ape cone head like an ape very hairy yet stand tall as man. N extremely smart.

I AM a believer in Bigfoot by any other name. I fear that the only way one can prove that Bigfoot is real is to Kill one and allow the scientist to examine it for a few years, performing all the tests they can think of before anyone will believe it. It’s a real shame that we are such skeptics.

More than once, I’ve seen scientists who are skeptical of the existence of Bigfoot say words to the effect of “Show us evidence collected by a credible scientist who isn’t a crackpot, and we’ll take it more seriously” But then when we do that, since the scientist’s research has made him/her a believer, the skeptics label them a crackpot and dismiss the evidence

It is impossible to prove something doesn’t exist. (Prove a squafluffle doesn’t exist. Go ahead, I’ll wait.) The article is about how, given enough time, resources, etc, you can sometimes prove a legend, like the giant squid, is fact. Give me something more than footprints—give me hair, scat samples that can be tested. Give me a body. Give me DNA. So far, the evidence if that kind that has been submitted as evidence of bigfoot has up lacking. Audio, video, photos too easily faked. (Back in day, the “little people ” photos were ‘authenticated by Kodak experts, but then admitted to be hoax.) Footprints? Maybe those, too—or maybe not. But give me DNA.

It is impossible to prove something doesn’t exist. (Prove a squafluffle doesn’t exist. Go ahead, I’ll wait.) The article is about how, given enough time, resources, etc, you can sometimes prove a legend, like the giant squid, is fact. Give me something more than footprints—give me hair, scat samples that can be tested. Give me a body. Give me DNA. So far, the evidence if that kind that has been submitted as evidence of bigfoot has up lacking. Audio, video, photos too easily faked. (Back in day, the “little people ” photos were ‘authenticated by Kodak experts, but then admitted to be hoax.) Footprints? Maybe those, too—or maybe not. But give me DNA.

They are still finding priceless paintings looted in WW2. Clothes, however, don’t hold up, nor are they kept, like paintings. It was likely quickly landfilled. The value of that costume, at the time, without the modern viral growth of the story, was less than nothing—no attention, no interviews, no books etc. if it had been found. The better, more scientific question is, Can we reproduce it?

We can prove you are real with DNA, we can’t prove bigfoot are real with too-easily mis-identified or hoaxed photos. Bring us DNA. Surely a Marine can collect poop from this family you’ve watch for 5 years?

I know what I saw and thousands of other people have seen them too.
Bigfoot has been seen by professional people, doctors, forest rangers,
Military men, and even sightings by multipal highway police officers
Seein the same Bigfoot. It’s not my job to prove that Bigfoot is real, scientist needs to do their job and not just assume that it’s impossible for them to be real because it doesn’t fit their plan of Evolution. Why would I or anyone want to talk to people about our sightings. Most people call us crazy, stupid, dumb for believing in Bigfoot. The reason we talk bout
It is that our encounter scared the crap out of us. We saw something science says doesn’t exist, it’s not real. Science lied they are real and I want other people to know about them, to warn them that they could have an encounter and be prepared. These things are 12 feet tall and you’d be no match in a fight with them. Many people go into the forests and never come out. i used to hunt and have no fear of the forest but those days are gone my life has been changed forever. The Bigfoots I’ve seen look just like the Patterson film 1967 except taller. They look like a man in a gorilla suit. Scientists are the ones to blame for the ignorance about Bigfoot.

I have frequent interaction with them. They are highly intelligent and possess extreme metaphysical abilities. I am not a researcher, I’m a student. They are showing me their abilities. The recent show Expedition Bigfoot illustrates some of those abilities. Watch the series and you’ll notice the confusion of the researchers, you’ll realize that their subjective selves are having trouble reconciling some of the phenomena they are experiencing. They began early in episode one with the exit of one of the researchers who mysteriously came down with a severe headache. Sasquatch showed them cloaking, telepathy and more and in extension they showed all of us. The sasquatch knew immediately who the team was and why they were there. The sasquatch are in complete control and have chosen this team to reveal some of their abilities. They are highly intelligent, compassionate, evolved beings. They understand our electronics, for instance. I’ve had them manipulate mine on many occasions. They have chosen me and a few others that I know for whatever this is? I believe it is part of a bigger comprehensive plan that includes ETs., vortexes and portals. I’ve seen them several times personally, by the way, but not for almost three years now. I’ve also had plenty of different witnesses with me, including friends, family and the few who were chosen, like me. It is such a crazy story that I guess it’s hard to believe unless you’ve lived it. That is the tough part. Because, I recently received the message that now is the time to begin the reveal. So here I am. : )

You are so correct Stephen. I watch a lot of documentaries regarding anything and everything. I’ve watched quite a few about the proper collection of DNA. Some that was thought to be Bigfoot. I have been following scientists and Crypto zoology for 52 years. Why? My own face to face encounter as a kid. In the last few years properly collected DNA has been submitted and it seems to disappear or they say that it’s been contaminated. But we are getting closer to having that DNA answer with all the technological tools at our disposal.

I believe that there is a department of our Government that know about Bigfoot. Most likely part of the Army Corps of Engineering. They listed Bigfoot as part of the natural wildlife in Washington State. I live in Oregon close to the cascade mountains and in an area known for Bigfoot sightings. I saw a Bigfoot while deer hunting, one Elk hunting, one mushroom hunting and a few while camping. I know a lot of people who has seen them here in this area. I can’t believe the government doesn’t
Know anything about them. National Gaurd sergeants have reported to superiors of seeing them, police officers, Doctors, phycologist, and forest Rangers have reported them besides the thousands of ordinary people like myself who has seen them. Every year national Gaurd camps and does training in the area where the Bigfoot lived, someone must have seen and reported them living there. Fifteen years ago we spotted some UN helicopters in the area and would fly around after midnight using only red glowing infrared lights. They hovered over our camp and checked us out. Military holding machine guns. We could also hear the Bigfoot screaming at the helicopters at night. What were they doing to the Bigfoot? Capturing them for study? To relocate them? To eliminate them. Being part of the government they would not have to report to the public or Scientific communities about their research or findings. They will not help us to prove that they are real if anything they will help keep it a secret. Since that encounter we have not seen or seen a Bigfoot in that area. No more footprints, twisted and broken trees or any other Bigfoot sign in that area. It’s sad to think that our Government might cause the extinction of Bigfoot before Science discovers them. All I know is that at one time they did exist and I was lucky enough to see them alive. I really do hope that I’m wrong. I feel if it was a new deer species or Wolf like animal science would have no problem looking for it and it would be new animal discovery by now. But being an ape…….what’s the problem?

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